The Chief whip at JB Marks Local Municipality in the North West, Mpho Matsapola, has refuted allegations levelled against the municipality that no services have been provided for residents in Ventersdorp town.
Residents of Ching Township have been up in arms recently, staging protests calling for the reversal of the merging of the councils of Ventersdorp and Tlokwe.
They say the merger was political because ANC was losing its grip on Tlokwe, which the DA was expected to take over.
Matsapola participated in a town hall debate hosted by SABC radio, where other political parties also took part.
“The aim of the merger was to see that Ventersdorp receives services. There has been meeting where the executive mayor and us as the ward councillors that there is R27 million that is going to be spent in Ventersdorp and as JB Marks we have used it in villages. We have installed toilets in Ga – Mogopa, Welgevonden, Boikhutsong even in Tsetse. It does not mean that we did nothing,” adds Matsapola.
Meanwhile, an ANC member who is also part of the Provincial Task Team China Dodovu, has acknowledged that there were problems.
He says consultations are on-going to resolve the impasse.
“We have started with the process on how we should solve these problems. We are going to follow all the laws that will guide us on what is it we should do better to resolve the problems of residents in Ventersdorp, after we listened to them as the ANC,” explains Dodovu.
